Antony Blinken, US Secretary of State, will address the UN Security Council in New York this Tuesday. EDUARDO MUNOZ (EFE)
Antony Blinken, Secretary of State of the United States, warned this Tuesday of the danger that the war in Gaza could lead to a regional conflict if the Americans were targeted. “The US does not seek conflict with Iran. We don’t want this war to expand. But if Iran or its allies [en la región] They attack personnel from our country, we will defend our people. “We will defend our security quickly and vigorously,” he told the UN Security Council.
Blinken reminded the highest executive body responsible for ensuring global peace and security that Iran is attacking Hamas, Lebanon’s Hezbollah, the Houthi rebels in Yemen and other militias in the region, such as several Shiites in Iraq. continued support Some of these groups have attacked US targets in Iraq and Syria in recent days. “If Iran or its representatives [en la región] “You are attacking American personnel, make no mistake: we will immediately defend our people, our personnel,” he stressed.
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The warning from Blinken, whose intervention before the Council was announced a few hours in advance, is not new and is part of the waiting period that Washington wants to implement on the eve of the Israeli army’s ground intervention in Gaza. Democratic President Joe Biden’s White House is worried about the expansion of the conflict, but even more so about the fate of the dozen American hostages, some with dual Israeli citizenship, in the hands of Hamas. For this reason, Blinken reminded the international community, the UN family, which “lost 35 workers” in the war, that their efforts must be redoubled to prevent the number of civilian casualties from rising. “Let us not forget that among the more than 1,400 people Hamas murdered on October 7 were citizens of more than 30 UN member states. At least 33 American citizens were among the victims. “Each of us has an interest – and a responsibility – to defeat terrorism,” he noted.
“All acts of terrorism are illegitimate and unjustifiable,” he recalled. “We cannot give up on peace, we cannot throw in the towel. We are at a crossroads and only have two paths ahead of us. One is Hamas, death, suffering, destruction. The other is the path to peace, security, integration, the self-determination of the Palestinians in their own state,” assured Blinken, assuming that time is running out for the two-state solution. His intervention coincides with the final drafting of a US proposal for a resolution to the UN General Assembly, lower in rank than the Council and containing non-binding decisions, which should theoretically be presented this Thursday.
The Democratic administration believes aid to Gaza is not arriving quickly enough, which is why Blinken has also asked the council to explore the possibility of establishing “humanitarian pauses” to help civilians. “We know that Hamas does not recognize Palestinian civilians, Hamas must stop using them as human shields,” the US diplomacy chief said. He then called for “humanitarian breaks” that would serve to “bring food, water, medicine and other essential items” to Gaza, “without aiding Hamas or any other terrorist group” such as Islamic Jihad, which is also operated in the Gaza Strip. John Kirby, spokesman for the National Security Council, also made similar comments this Tuesday, saying he was in favor of a humanitarian “pause” but not a ceasefire “that would only benefit Hamas.”
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Blinken’s request comes after U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield vetoed in the Council last week a draft resolution introduced by Brazil that, in addition to condemning the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack, specifically introduced ” “Humanitarian pauses” called for “to alleviate the needs of Gazans due to the siege by the Israeli army. “There is no hierarchy when it comes to protecting the life of a civilian,” Blinken said this Tuesday. “Civilians are civilians.”
Israel calls on Guterres to resign
The difficult situation in which the United Nations finds itself, with the Council paralyzed by the veto power that any of its five permanent members can exercise – such as the United States last week or Russia in connection with the war in Ukraine – has become worse shown again this Tuesday. Israel’s UN ambassador has called for the resignation of António Guterres, the organization’s secretary-general, after he said Hamas attacks did not occur “in a vacuum,” citing Israel’s “oppressive occupation” of Palestinians decades.
“I ask for your immediate resignation. There is no justification or sense in speaking to those who show understanding for the most terrible acts committed against the citizens of Israel, and certainly not against a declared terrorist organization,” the Israeli ambassador said earlier in a message on the social media Network X known as Twitter. “It is truly sad that the head of an organization that emerged after the Holocaust expresses such terrible views,” he wrote. The Israeli Foreign Ministry canceled the bilateral meeting with Guterres after the Secretary General’s speech.
In his speech, Guterres emphasized that the suffering of the Palestinians does not justify a terrorist attack like the one carried out by Hamas on October 7 or a disproportionate response by Israel against Gaza. “It is also important to recognize that the Hamas attacks did not occur in a vacuum. The Palestinian people have been subjected to oppressive occupation for 56 years. He has seen his land endlessly consumed by settlement and ravaged by violence; its economy is suffocating; its people were displaced and its homes were destroyed. Their hopes for a political solution to their plight have faded,” Guterres said. “But the grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify Hamas’s heinous attacks. And these cruel attacks cannot justify collective punishment of the Palestinian people.”
Guterres was scheduled to meet this afternoon with families of Israeli hostages who were attending the Security Council meeting on war that morning. According to Israel’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations, the relatives were also scheduled to meet with New York Mayor Eric Adams, who traveled to Israel last week and took part in several pro-Israel demonstrations in the Big Apple with the Jewish leaders the city. The cancellation of the bilateral meeting with Guterres was announced by Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen after attending the Council meeting during a brief appearance before the media, during which he was flanked by the delegation of the hostages’ relatives.
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